Critical Review: Sera Prognostics (NASDAQ:SERA) versus Oncology Institute (NASDAQ:TOI)

Oncology Institute (NASDAQ:TOI) and Sera Prognostics (NASDAQ:SERA) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, valuation, analyst recommendations, earnings, profitability, risk and dividends.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Oncology Institute and Sera Prognostics”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Oncology Institute	$393.41 million	0.72	-$64.66 million	($0.64)	-4.52
Sera Prognostics	$80,000.00	1,104.93	-$32.90 million	($0.77)	-2.97

Sera Prognostics has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Oncology Institute. Oncology Institute is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Sera Prognostics, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

36.9% of Oncology Institute shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 54.6% of Sera Prognostics shares are held by institutional investors. 8.5% of Oncology Institute shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 13.5% of Sera Prognostics shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and target prices for Oncology Institute and Sera Prognostics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Oncology Institute	1	0	3	1	2.80
Sera Prognostics	1	0	0	1	2.50

Oncology Institute presently has a consensus price target of $6.50, indicating a potential upside of 124.91%. Sera Prognostics has a consensus price target of $5.00, indicating a potential upside of 118.34%. Given Oncology Institute’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Oncology Institute is more favorable than Sera Prognostics.

Profitability

This table compares Oncology Institute and Sera Prognostics’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Oncology Institute	-13.21%	-1,527.21%	-35.30%
Sera Prognostics	-34,343.16%	-41.69%	-31.77%

Volatility & Risk

Oncology Institute has a beta of 0.14, meaning that its stock price is 86% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sera Prognostics has a beta of 0.98, meaning that its stock price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Sera Prognostics beats Oncology Institute on 8 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Oncology Institute

The Oncology Institute, Inc., an oncology company, provides various medical oncology services in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Dispensary, Patient Services, and Clinical Trials & Other. It offers physician services, in-house infusion and dispensary, clinical trial, radiation, outpatient blood product transfusion, and patient support services, as well as educational seminars, support groups, and counseling services. The company also provides managing clinical trials, palliative care programs, stem cell transplants services, and other care delivery models associated with non-community-based academic and tertiary care settings; and conducts clinical trials for a range of pharmaceutical and medical device companies. It serves adult and senior cancer patients. The company has a strategic collaboration with Healthly Forge to offer cancer care services to patients in Southern California. The Oncology Institute, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Cerritos, California.

About Sera Prognostics

Sera Prognostics, Inc., a women's health diagnostic company, discovers, develops, and commercializes biomarker tests for improving pregnancy outcomes in the United States. The company develops PreTRM test, a blood-based biomarker test to predict the risk of spontaneous preterm birth in singleton pregnancies. It is also developing a portfolio of product candidates for various pregnancy-related conditions, including preterm birth, preeclampsia, molecular time-to-birth, predictive analytics, gestational diabetes mellitus, fetal growth restriction, stillbirth, and postpartum depression. The company was incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.